tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72005962038790879632024-02-07T15:43:55.561-08:00ART 620rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-56006124563912739932012-12-12T20:04:00.002-08:002012-12-12T20:04:34.046-08:00Ramon Riley FINAL - VISUAL culture: The New Ravishing<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>VISUAL culture</b>: <i>The New Ravishing</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ramon Riley</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Looking</i> at Sandro Botticelli’s untitled painting commonly known as <i>La Primavera</i> or <i>Allegory of Spring</i>, we can find an Allegory of our visual culture, which we explored in Sturken and Cartwright’s <i>Practices of Looking..</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>La Primavera, </i>painted in 1482, depicts mythological figures in a garden. From watching a television program <i>Every Painting Tells a Story</i>, I was inspired to investigate this allegory for the lush growth of spring as a potential for metaphors connecting to our readings from <i>Practices of Looking...</i> as well as for my work, for my life, and for my art.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandro Botticelli<br />La Primavera, 1482</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But First, <b>to understand the painting, we must read it from right to left</b>. This is not our natural way to read imagery. In western industrialized culture, we train ourselves to read from left to right. Once we adjust to looking at <i>La Primavera, </i>we begin to explore the subjects of the painting: six females, two males and a putto (fat child).</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandro Botticelli<br />La Primavera (detail), 1482</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Secondly, <b>in Greek mythology, man created gods in his likeness. </b>In Christianity, we are taught that God created man in the likeness of his own image. For this painting, we must calibrate our thinking. These gods of Greek mythology are flawed with human qualities. On the right, Zephyrus, god of the biting west wind of March, is “ravishing” Chloris against her will, after she resisted him. He wanted her, regardless of her resistance, so he took her. Zephyrus, a force of nature, ravished Chloris, an unintentionally seductive nymph, who rejected and resisted Zephyrus. This metaphor is critical in making connections to our western industrialized culture. From this aggressive act, flowers sprouted out of the mouth of Chloris. Despite being overpowered, Chloris transformed into Flora the goddess of flowers, or the goddess of spring. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After reading Sturken and Cartwright’s <i>Practices of Looking..</i>., I have come to this conclusion: <b>in our western industrialized culture there is always a ravishing. </b>We the people are like Chloris, the unintentionally seductive nymphs of Zephyrus’ desire. Wealth and power are like the west wind blown from the mouth of Zephyrus. We can never obtain the wind, but we can be devastated by the wind. <b>Our resilience and transformation produces a figurative garden.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Every pun intended. The male gaze as the primary target audience of visual marketing is no coincidence. Throughout history, men have ravished seductive women. Ravishing is a display of power with little skill. Seduction is a skillful way of being that must be nurtured and tuned, but regardless of how skillful or for whom the seduction is intended, stereotypically, men ejaculate at the thought of being powerful. This makes men easy targets of marketing. The empty promise of obtaining power is a faster sell in promoting consumable goods than the promise of making one desirable, which takes work to develop, more work to maintain and is subjective to asking approval from an audience.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In my work, I used to think I focused on the metaphorical transformation of the nymph Chloris into Flora, the goddess of flowers. I thought I chose subjects that have been affected, possibly devastated by the wind. Whether literally eroded, by weather and time, or poetically rusted, by mistreatment or abandonment, I found great pleasure in the “dusting off”, rediscovery, recovery and re-exhibition of beauty. Taking the opportunity to immerse, for the first time of my adult life, in my art, I began piecing together thoughts that had been gestating for 15 years, but I had no idea how to make my ideas my “work”. Surrendering to the academic process of making art, which involves study, theory and criticism, I wanted to distance myself from being an amateur, kitsch and/or stagnant artist. That much I knew.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Swiping through images of Botticelli’s work in an Art history “app” on an iPad, I realized my work too will be swiped through, from screen to screen, on a beautiful “retina display”, or some other new technology, if I am lucky. This is another kind of ravishing. Technology will swallow the work of artists whole. If that is to be an artist’s fate, then what is the point of putting oneself out there? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Retreating back to the studio, painting to music at three in the morning, I realized then, as I do now, this is the moment.<b> I have to decide whether I can accept the offerings of the real world or live inside my mind.</b> We are all like Chloris: <b> </b>In the real world, we have all had something taken from us or put into us. <b>By simply existing, we are subject to be ravished by shallow, aggressive “gods”. </b>In the real world, I am like the nymph Chloris, but that is not who I am in my mind. In the studio, I realized I was deciding whether my work is an acknowledgement of such a “taking”, an inventory of what is left of me, or a discovery of an untouchable and sacred place. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In <i>La Primavera</i>, Flora, the goddess of flowers, is the second female image from the right. In this 6 and a half foot tall painting, it is Flora who is addressing the viewer by looking at and stepping directly toward us, approximately at eye level. Despite the dominating acts of Zephyrus, her arrival symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life. Perhaps, Flora was the answer to the question: <b>What could my art become? </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To the left of Flora, we see Venus the goddess of love. Venus is also looking at the audience, though not as directly as Flora, for Venus is an overseer presiding over the garden. She is a god too. Her oblivious response to the ravishing of Chloris implies its inevitability. Venus, therefore, has her graces set to seduce another male god in the painting, Mercury. Mercury, who is waving a wand to keep the clouds away from the garden in springtime, is the messenger god of abundance and commercial success. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandro Botticelli<br />La Primavera (detail), 1482</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In <i>Practices of Looking..</i>., we learn, in our western industrialized culture, people in power control visual media, and thus control production. The mass population looks to the “powers that be” to thwart off the clouds with their magic wands in the role of Mercury. Despite thinking their actions being more like Zephyrus, we cast them as Mercury, who is receiving Venus’ graces, primed to make love on the lush ground of springtime grass. <b> </b>In another painting by Botticelli, <i>Mars and Venus, </i>painted a year later, we see the affect of Venus’ love on Mars, the god of war. With his helmet cast aside, Mars is easily satisfied by Venus. Seeing such satisfaction makes Mercury the lucky god. <b>So why would we not cast ourselves in the role to receive Venus’ love?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In <i>La Primavera</i>, Venus’ three accompanying dancing nymphs, the Three Graces (Charm, Beauty, Creativity), set the stage for Mercury to enjoy the love of Venus. Venus’ aloof facial expression, similar to her expression in the other Botticelli paintings <i>Birth of Venus </i>and<i> Mars and Venus, </i>is appropriate because her love is unobtainable. Just as the wind of Zephyrus is inescapable, Venus’ love is impenetrable. Her love can not be owned. One can only be affected by it.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandro Botticelli<br />Birth of Venus, 1486</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unfortunately, mastery of media means that powerful corporations are creating truths for the masses. We the people have grown to be fearful of the gods, to believe we own gods, or believe we are God. The average person never knew the game. Now, the average person no longer knows their place.<b> Media tricks us into believing we can only be Chloris or Zephyrus, meanwhile trying to reduce Venus, so we may never know her. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We need only to look at Titian’s <i>Venus of Urbino, </i>painted just 56 years later in 1538, to see the inspiration for the kind of marketing we have mastered today. Here, Venus is looking directly at the viewer. She is touching her vagina. She is teasing the viewer unapologetically. <i>Venus of Urbino </i>is placed in a domestic setting, which implies that she is ready to be tamed by mortal man. While I enjoy the painting’s direct sexuality, she does not deserve to be called a Venus. <i>Venus of Urbino</i> is just an easy lay, so don’t be fooled.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Typing this paper in my local Starbucks, I see another trick, Siren, the company’s logo portrayed as the muse and welcoming hostess of the company’s brand. A siren in Greek mythology is a seductive, devious creature who lures sailors to their death with her sex appeal and her song. In the early Starbucks logo, we knew she was a siren because she clearly had two mermaid-like tails, but over the years, the logo has become more deceptive. Her tales are almost completely hidden by design principles of symmetrical balance and unity with the lines of the hair. This siren is being presented as a Venus. ...like a Titian-style Venus, however, looking directly at the viewer. Starbuck’s website acknowledges that she is a “siren” but manipulates her purpose: “</span><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0px;">And she’s a promise too, inviting all of us to find what we’re looking for, even if it’s something we haven’t even imagined yet.”</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> (...like Death!?!)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX8nESdyq-qV9dpAgOGyaMm8HNlUTuDeAzwJDQdFwMxRCYw9xNvW6L5exEsK6_kjW3YNt9kUxJfOygiB7a-WCl6jJHCVp96Us8_V7K5zQYtobt5eXpJHGEmLhtXyaVvaFbFuqTq5h4qkoc/s1600/history-of-starbucks-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX8nESdyq-qV9dpAgOGyaMm8HNlUTuDeAzwJDQdFwMxRCYw9xNvW6L5exEsK6_kjW3YNt9kUxJfOygiB7a-WCl6jJHCVp96Us8_V7K5zQYtobt5eXpJHGEmLhtXyaVvaFbFuqTq5h4qkoc/s640/history-of-starbucks-logo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Mastery of media means images can be taken and used to turn tricks, or serve as prostitutes. </b>How else could a devious killer be misrepresented by one of the world’s biggest brands as a muse or goddess in the form of a logo, such as the siren being used by Starbucks? Conversely, how else could the goddess of love be reduced to an easy lay in the form of endless Venus impostors?<b> This is the new ravishing. All is fair when pushing commodities.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Marx thought an ideology such as consumerism brought ‘false consciousness’ making the masses vulnerable to coercion. Familiarity brings marketability which births sell-able products, projects and even political candidates. We are bombarded with messages and images that make us feel powerful, only to be disempowered by the magic trick or the dominant-hegemonic forces. This is interpellation, a sophisticated form of manipulation. Someone is getting powerful, and thus someone is getting rich by manipulating the masses. Those who own production control ideas. This also gives some insight to the widening income gap in America. The rich keep getting richer because there are more ways to control media, and, thus, they have more ways to gain capital. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I try to imagine an agricultural culture where labor and the crop dictates the schedule and, thus, the senses of a man... no iPods, no magazines, no billboards, no radio, no television, no computer... no need. In such a culture, the ravishing can be more obvious. American slavery is an example of such a ravishing as recent as 150 years ago. Some things are just in our nature. The visuals that are centerpiece of our current “culture” suppress our resistance by soothing us with pseudo art in the form of advertising that reinforces our culture’s ideology. Industrialization has perfected the veil.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I taught a foreign exchange student from Russia about 12 years ago, who told me “American blue jeans” would be prized souvenirs to take back to her home. An inventive use of cotton intended to be gear for steelworkers had been masterfully marketed as fashion... This cotton commodity is what made our country unique to an outsider. ...the literal fabric of the figurative garden that sprouted out of the mouth of Chloris.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Enter the digital garden. Through media, fantasy itself is a marketable commodity. We are constantly creating and consuming fantasy. Such a cycle is a complex and interconnected VISUAL culture. It is no longer as simple as seeing the advertisement and buying the product. Advertisers know that buying into the fantasy keeps us in a constant state of consumerism. Consumer addicts just need to have access to the products. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In a conversation with one of my ninth grade students, I was astonished by the impact of VISUAL culture on her. She said, “I wish life had a soundtrack. Then, you would know what was going to happen by what type of music was playing, and you would know what to do.” Mastery of media has so effectively blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, we no longer wish they were one and the same. <b>We believe fantasy and reality ARE one and the same.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Most of us, now, appreciate media in the context of other media. For example, I do not see our young people listening to music for music sake. There must be a video that also informs them about the fashion trends, latest lingo, and temperament. To many, “What a Wonderful World” does not exist on its own. It recalls emotions and imagery from <i>Toy Story 3. </i>Does it no longer make US feel as good when it was “just” a beautiful song from the soulful and raspy voice of Louis Armstrong?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The production of fantasy is a valuable commodity. In our western industrialized culture, <i>we mass produce fantasy</i>. Because most of us do not have to toil in the fields; because most of us do not have to pick cotton; because most of us do not work from sunrise to sunset; because our poorest citizens have more leisure time in a day and more years in a lifespan than during anytime in history, we have time to fantasize. <b>Our dreams and our fantasies are the lush garden. </b>VISUAL culture keeps us caught in a cycle, however, where we continue to cast ourselves as Chloris. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That once famous superstar athlete may have trouble walking in his 50’s. That platinum selling musician did not make nearly as much money as you thought. That award winning actor overdosed on drugs. The powerful business man is obese and impotent...etc., yet we repeatedly fill the roles of Chloris and Zephyrus in our fantasy commodity. ...the phoenix from the ashes ...the rags to riches story... With the hopes of becoming Flora, these “beautiful” stories are in constant rotation being retold and resold. <b> Why do we JUST dream to be nymphs who morph into gods? </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Without truly <i>seeing</i> Venus, we won’t see the big picture. She is the center of an this almost basic, symmetrical composition. <b>Venus is the goddess of sex, but she is also the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, prosperity and victory. </b>With his arrow aimed at Mercury, Cupid, Venus’ son is the god of desire, affection and erotic love, so sex is definitely an important part of the picture, but that is not the only part. Venus’ power goes beyond desires of the flesh.<b> </b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweoREpcKwiWQ0ba67WHmRbKk5_Uv0KEJd-4G99yI__FgsDrgmOJOZqyNoBuJl8JqsHgoZE0oH4E2FOTQiutv70ZGEp3GG2TxdyI5zh88S3qIxu75qsiB6JIBhLEwG0a2xnq11yewPhBbv/s1600/primavera-botticelli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweoREpcKwiWQ0ba67WHmRbKk5_Uv0KEJd-4G99yI__FgsDrgmOJOZqyNoBuJl8JqsHgoZE0oH4E2FOTQiutv70ZGEp3GG2TxdyI5zh88S3qIxu75qsiB6JIBhLEwG0a2xnq11yewPhBbv/s320/primavera-botticelli.jpg" width="115" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandro Botticelli<br />La Primavera (detail), 1482</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In my current work, I am embarking on a journey to explore and reveal Venus, uplifting both her overt and subtle attributes as the lead actor in my fantasy. I have been creating abstract foundations in paint on paper and allowing them to settle. I then cultivate the surface with abstract mark-making like vitamin-rich soil, hoping Venus may find my work a suitable, protected “garden” environment. Lastly, I try to unearth her from the depths of my underpainting, whether her likeness emerges as portrait, sculpture or landmark, so that I can admire her charms and her grace... </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8yRZQQom0ZXsNZd1Vzu6OvSesLB9XF-Son2oa5Vt5KBhQkvn2wEWgvCY_r1U5XrEDWlajC6RTfPQkAuc77eiMVULZjLo8peDyNXAIQqs3ZboifHlXtZlZ1mTTEA6UAknep-WElbFMZt2/s1600/IMG_0001_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8yRZQQom0ZXsNZd1Vzu6OvSesLB9XF-Son2oa5Vt5KBhQkvn2wEWgvCY_r1U5XrEDWlajC6RTfPQkAuc77eiMVULZjLo8peDyNXAIQqs3ZboifHlXtZlZ1mTTEA6UAknep-WElbFMZt2/s320/IMG_0001_2.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ramon Riley<br />untitled (in-progress)</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Venus can not be reduced, but she can be ignored, and others can pose as her impostor. Christianity teaches about such pitfalls in or relationship with God. As Christianity teaches, one must be open to receive and accept God, we too must be skillful in the art of <i>Looking</i> to see gods, so that we may either fantasize to be them or fantasize to be loved by them. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In VISUAL culture there will always be a ravishing, but it is the preservation and play by the gods Mercury and Venus (along with the Cupid and the Three Graces) in <i>La Primavera </i>that could be inspiration for other fantasies giving us something greater than the hope of Chloris’ transformation to inhabit the garden.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">...<b>As the professional practicing artist of my own fantasy, may I always choose to cast myself as Mercury, so that I may protect the garden beneath Venus’ feet, constantly being prepared to receive her love. </b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcQvBG-tMRZzXFrqst09YjeHWWjn5YHBU-F97CYnqaMy8fXVJd08vOxdYoaiVjH2WE9q4X38O1qqjbDlUL9MA8e5IY88v3HY3ptEwtiW0T9vU2YEvy2_GNsJX92h-mWlnzt0mHvZTqMM1/s1600/DSC_0301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcQvBG-tMRZzXFrqst09YjeHWWjn5YHBU-F97CYnqaMy8fXVJd08vOxdYoaiVjH2WE9q4X38O1qqjbDlUL9MA8e5IY88v3HY3ptEwtiW0T9vU2YEvy2_GNsJX92h-mWlnzt0mHvZTqMM1/s640/DSC_0301.jpg" width="329" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ramon Riley<br />untitled (Venus), 2012</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Resources</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Marita Sturken, Lisa Cartwright, <i>Practices of Looking...an Introduction to Visual Culture</i> (Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Steven Pressfield, <i>The War of Art</i> (New York City, NY: Rugged Land, LLC, 2002).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Steven Pressfield, <i>The Warrior Ethos</i> (New York City, NY: Black Irish Entertainment, LLC, 2011).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV)</i> (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, 1879, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DVenus1"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">"Venus"</span></a> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primavera_%28painting%29"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primavera_%28painting%29</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(mythology"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(mythology</span></a>)</span></div>
<div style="color: #021eaa; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 13px;">
<span style="color: #323333; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botticelli</span></a></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Samuel Butler, Homer, <i>The Iliad and The Odyssey</i> (A Buki Editions Collection, 2009). </span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Campos, Thai. "Botticelli - The Philosophy Behind Primavera." <i>Suite 101.com</i>. Jan. 2010 <<a href="http://suite101.com/article/botticelli--the-philosophy-behind-primavera-a191131"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://suite101.com/article/botticelli--the-philosophy-behind-primavera-a191131</span></a>>.</span></div>
<div style="color: #323333; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">M., Steven. "So Who Is Siren?" <i>Starbucks.com</i>. 5 Jan. 2011 <<a href="http://whyfiles.org/137lightning/index.html"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://www.starbucks.com/blog/so-who-is-the-siren</span></a>>.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"Cupid" in <i>The Classical Tradition,</i> edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 144–145.</span></div>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-19754644191685222162012-11-07T19:29:00.000-08:002012-11-07T21:08:00.045-08:00Ramon Riley - TEN - Who Are WE Visually?<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Writing TEN - “Who Are WE Visually”?</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ramon Riley</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Cool</b>. The word has been extracted from it’s vernacular origins. It is the key to America’s visual mission statement. Introduced to America by Miles Davis with “Birth of the Cool” recorded in 1949 and released in 1957, the idea of "cool" and being cool has been marketed and sold ever since.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is not a coincidence that the emergence of Jazz, an American-born art form, happened just before American commercials and advertisements began selling a way of life and ideas of success instead of strictly being informational campaigns to move consumer goods... marketing “cool”. Sparked by The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s-1930’s, like the more recent hip-hop explosion of the 1980’s-1990’s, it was a cultural movement where music, poetry and art was seamlessly woven within a lifestyle. Black Americans of The Harlem Renaissance, who were not of the mainstream, invented and reinvented themselves. Anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston said, “Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company?” America couldn’t. </span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">America’s acceptance of it’s Black citizens as the entrepreneurs of “cool” led to the progress of the civil rights movement, to progress in education, to progress in socio-economics... all the way to the white house. Black people make white people rich because black people create “cool” and corporations manufacture, package and sell “cool” for profit. Do I sound racist? Wikipedia Elvis Presley. You know, “the king”? “He began his career in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience.” Elvis Presley was manufactured and marketable “cool” in an acceptable package at the time.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Knowing that televisions upstart in the early 50’s, marketed as an educational tool, becoming a tool for product placement puts things in perspective for me (p. 151-186). I am reading between the lines, but, there is a connection to Black history. Black Americans gained civil rights just in time to be useful salespeople, as well as consumers. If you watch sports, for example, Black athletes have become inseparable from the company that markets them. I merely think about Michael Jordan, and an image of the Jumpman logo (a spin-off company of Nike) appears in my mind. I see the Jumpman logo, and images of Jordan dunking from the free throw line in the ’87 dunk contest is conjured. </span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Visual media becomes even more complex, because black people have not had civil rights long enough to accumulate generational wealth. America associates a face of authenticity with its Black citizens. If we see a rich Black person, or a successful Black person, we assume they are a product of the American Dream, advancing oneself through hard work and opportunity, not through nepotism. ...and that is “cool”. So when many Americans see black skin, they think “cool”. President Obama and Jay-Z should hang out (and they do) because they are both black. And through a series of deductions, if X equals Z and Y equals Z and Jay-Z is “cool”, then... I have no idea where I was going with that...</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The pitfall is believing one’s own hype. Miles Davis birthed “cool” because he was as inventive in music as Picasso was in visual art. He sampled and appropriated a genius blend of sources, and he OWNED the product because he OWNED the process. Michael Jordan was “cool” because he mastered the fundamentals and studied the best before him, dominating a team sport in an unprecedented way. MJ was jazz in the athletic form. These are just two examples of icons whose image/persona of the “cool” is supported by substance. The difference was time. Davis was “Birth of the Cool” and Jordan was a pioneer during an ascension of the mastery of media's use of "cool". </span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Reading Sturken and Cartwright’s <i>Practices of Looking... </i>has been life-changing for me. This book filled in many gaps. Visual media has been mastered. We are easily defeated by it’s power. If I am thinking it, I may be too late, for it’s already being test-marketed. Each chapter provided insight on ways it happens... </span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRWit6Cpz7dZ7S1K4C0ADTD4HifaoLEhlNaqyunxYvHukm25Hq9hiazB3tCWU4TfiXVmZg12lXPiRAzjYJbkDCQ-L8nSTJDfHsFWLda4oGuZxu43q4FyQBCR81i2ridKzzAfq7IxOyuhrR/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRWit6Cpz7dZ7S1K4C0ADTD4HifaoLEhlNaqyunxYvHukm25Hq9hiazB3tCWU4TfiXVmZg12lXPiRAzjYJbkDCQ-L8nSTJDfHsFWLda4oGuZxu43q4FyQBCR81i2ridKzzAfq7IxOyuhrR/s200/11.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unfortunately, mastery of media means media is able to separate “cool” from its origins. Media manufactures rebellion in ways, such as teen angst, for example, and kids believe that is cool. Every time I see screen-printed t-shirts that say “Anarchy”, I say “packaged rebellion” to myself. Media places labels on people to separate us. Media doesn’t wait for us to want. Except now, our wants don’t have to be backed by substance. It makes the work of corporate pseudo-artists easier, and who wouldn’t want to make their job easier. We are misled to believe that’s the American way, but that ain’t “cool”. When we simply go along for the ride, we lose our “cool”.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So, <b>Who are we?</b> ...collectively as Americans... Well, <b>we want to be “cool”</b> because “cool” was born when media was born. “Cool” and media grew up together. Americans invented jazz, and, therefore, invented the formula for “cool”. Now, “cool” is more American than apple pie. <b>“Cool” is dreaming and carrying out ones dreams TODAY.</b> You want to play on the big stage? Start playing on whatever stage will have you, and OWN IT like it is the big stage. That’s "cool". ...even if that big stage means practicing into a broomstick/microphone. ...just so long as one is working at it, then you're really “cool”.</span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 14px;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; margin-bottom: 10px;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“C-O-O-L What's that spell?</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">C-O-O-L That spells cool</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">...it's all because of something</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">That I didn't learn in school</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I'm just cool (Cool)</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Honey, baby can't U see?</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Girl, I'm so cool (Cool)</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ain't nobody bad like me</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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</span></div>rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-7756454303694987802012-10-31T17:01:00.000-07:002012-10-31T17:01:39.479-07:00Ramon Riley - Writing NINE - A Life Worth Stealing <br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Writing NINE - A Life Worth Stealing</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Chapter Nine from Sturken and Cartwright’s <i>Practices of Looking... </i>“The Global Flow Of Visual Culture”, I found myself feeling hopeless...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How does one make an impact, when multi-national corporations can make, bastardize or destroy you in the name of profit? I found it mind-boggling that the chapter put to words what I’ve always thought. “The convergence of previously discrete media industries and technologies allows media to be integrated into the lives of people across boundaries more smoothly and effortlessly.”(p 315) In other words, they have so mastered the game that these big companies can telegraph their moves and not care because <b>we accept it</b>. I am aware of this every time I watch Disney/ESPN/ABC television. It is unavoidable. A single corporation will find some way to get you: film, magazines, books, sports, TV, newspapers, radio, websites...etc.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Question 1.</i></b> <b>How are you most vulnerable? What is your weakness when it comes to being a targeted consumer?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The concept of <i>cultural imperialism</i> (p 322) as a way of exporting a way of life and cultural products was particularly disturbing. We envy the French. Wait! We must hate the French. I can’t remember why... but I find it fascinating to hear from people who travel that it was always better than they expected, wherever the place. That is because we have been conditioned to believe America is the greatest and most advanced in every way. One would think with so much media access, we would be more free thinking. In reality, that is how we are controlled even in our own country through our own media. It has been my observation that, in the past 20 years, my black nephew, in a working class family, acts as entitled as my white students from upper middle class families. Media and “reality” TV has managed to bridge the race gap for the worse. During a recent trip to New York City, I witnessed college students from a country of lightly tanned people (I could not recognize the accent), and all I could decipher was the repeating of “Carrie Bradshaw, Carrie Bradshaw”, the main character from the movies and series, “Sex in the City”. They then began acting in a very unbecoming manner; speaking loudly and posing glamorously while they took each others’ pictures. As an aside, it just so happened that I saw the real Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker, the night before, during the encore of her husband’s show on broadway, and she was very unassuming, wanting anything but attention.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Question 2.</i></b> <b>Who are we (Americans)? How would you market us? What traits would you want to see mimicked by tourists?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Right before I passed judgement towards the statement about third world households most expensive purchase being the television, I thought about all the “man caves” and game rooms where the TV is the basically the epicenter of the home (p 326). But now, we are moving away from TV into interactive TV because of the boom of the internet. “If you like our show, follow us on twitter, or check out our website...” I am not encouraged by the internets multi-directional/fundamentally democratic experience. Sure, I can get hair products and art supplies through the mail that I would not have access to in Indiana, PA, but at what cost, really? I remember waiting outside the Civic Arena in 1997 to get a ticket to a Prince concert that was later cancelled. The people I met, and the experience of hearing the “Emancipation” album in someone’s car, while we sought relief from the cold, was worth the journey. Every artist knows the process is better than the product. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Not to be a total cynic, there are some wonderful things about the internet. I can find moments of nostalgia more easily, and I can share them with others. I guess I am questioning... Does having this access replace creating new memories, movements...etc. It’s all turned into history far too quickly anyway. It’s like we have shortened the lifespan of good art and increased the lifespan of trainwreck media.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Question 3.</i></b> <b>What have you found on the internet that you could not have access to otherwise? </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>Question 4.</i></b> <b>How dependent are you on the internet? Classwork aside, how long could you go without access to the internet?</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The chapter goes on to talk about the difficulty in regulating the internet and the importance in big companies using what once was seen as small, free media and advertisement. Regulating the internet because it is a place of free speech...PORN. I am glad they acknowledged that elephant (p. 339-344). (I did find it interesting that there was no mention of China, since they are so big and their market dictates so much.) It is too much to digest because it is so encompassing. I don’t know if I am missing the forest with all the trees in the way, so I close my paper with this...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>If not for us relating to images like a joyous child playing jumprope in the neighborhood, companies would have no imagery to use that evokes our emotions. Then, how would they sell us products. We must have a life worth stealing, and then we must fight to hold on to it. I am going to go listen to that Prince album again.</i></b></span></div>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-30268037146320876282012-10-03T20:43:00.001-07:002012-10-03T20:45:12.476-07:00Ramon Riley Writing FIVE - Visual Culture’s Stronghold on Authentic Life <br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ramon Riley </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Writing FIVE - Visual Culture’s Stronghold on Authentic Life</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The movie opens with a metaphor for us to consider. White sheep being herded with a lone black sheep caught in the middle of the pack... The 1936 film <i>Modern Times</i>, written, directed and starring Charlie Chaplin directly and indirectly addresses many of the topics we have read in <i>Practices of Looking...</i> by Sturken and Cartwright.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, <i>Modern Times</i> was not very “modern” at all. This is a silent film created and released after silent films had run their course. Chaplin, however, was a master pantomime artist, so his resistance was an obvious attempt to promote his strongest attributes as an actor. Voice was added in the film only as post-production to clarify the details of a scene through a phonograph, a radio and a television adding bit parts within the film. Many people wondered why Chaplin resisted “talkies” when the technology was available. The expectation was that the world’s biggest star, the first million dollar movie star, should adopt current technology in order to stay relevant, and sticking with silent film was making Chaplin obsolete (1). </span><br />
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<i>Modern Times </i>was also shot using an outdated film technique. At 18 frames per second, a speed used for silent films, the action seemed more fast paced and animated when it was played at 24 frames per second, the new normal film speed of the time. Like the lead character in the film the Little Tramp was trying to survive the world of industry, factory workers, and assembly lines, Chaplin was trying to survive the changing landscape of film. Moreover, while Chaplin denied any messages beyond pure entertainment, many agree that <i>Modern Times </i>intentionally makes a statement about people’s insignificance in respect to the “machine” of industry. <br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Throughout <i>Practices of Looking... </i>Sturken and Cartwright refer to us as a Western industrialized culture living in a multimedia environment, which stems from capitalism. Discussed in chapter 1, social power and ideologies are are produced by images. Navigating through imagery is not a passive process. We influence the meaning and value of the marketable mass produced objects, images and experiences, or stuff, we buy. This awareness is necessary in attempting to dissect our visual culture. Not every culture is bombarded with images every second of everyday. We are the connoisseurs of taste. Our taste says much about who we are. Through “representation”, we are like gods seeking visuals in our likeness and refining our taste. This determines what we buy, whether literally or conceptually. Buying gives us power, both actual and perceived. Buying power (or surrendering buying power) is the canvas on which mass media attempts to understand and shape our habits, so they can sell us their stuff.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Radio and Television made “information” available to non-literate people, and this made capitalism more prevalent in daily life (p. 153). Prior to radio and television, we could not put our trust in mass media to teach and give us “our” opinions. Many never really question information from “trustworthy” faces of a trusted source of news, like FOX or CNN. Our hearts, minds, and souls are the battlefield for the war between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces. Does George Bush being marketed as the president one could have a beer with versus Al Gore, the pretentious snob, make Bush a more effective president? Then, why are candidates personalities and temperaments reportable “news” for network “debates”?</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Trust is important in the ideology of our consumer culture, and this trust can be easily manipulated. In chapter 5, the idea is presented that films like <i>JFK</i> masterfully convince us of the film’s accuracy by incorporating television news footage or imagery to look like vintage news footage. This is evidence at how deeply layered and in-grained visual culture is in the Western industrialized psyche (p. 157). Perhaps, trust can be easily misplaced because the viewing audience convinces itself that viewing television replaces participation (p. 165). We think that by “paying attention” to social and political issues we are informed and active. And maybe we are. Maybe “tuning in” provides data for the market researchers. We use our buying power as political power. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In <i>Modern Times, </i>our hero the Little Tramp can not escape the trappings of consumerism. Whether he is falling asleep on a job, as a night watchmen, in a comfortable bed of a department store, the dream is to have the desired lifestyle. During a scene with the Little Tramp and the Gamine resting their weary souls on the lawn of a well-to-do house, the two fantasize about what it would be like to have that house as a home for themselves. They imagine a stocked refrigerator, fresh fruit from the tree outside their window, milk straight from a cow outside their door and having to give little effort for anything. Coming back into consciousness, they decide to “give it a go” back to the city hoping to make a living. Work hard to “take it easy”.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chaplin and Goddard<br />
Modern Times (1936)</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Marx thought ideology brought “false consciousness” making the masses vulnerable to coercion. Familiarity brings marketability which births sell-able products, projects and even political candidates. Someone is getting powerful, and thus someone is getting rich by manipulating the masses. Those who own production control ideas (p.51). This also gives some insight to the widening income gap in America. The rich keep getting richer because there are more ways to control media and thus more ways to gain capital. In <i>Modern Times, </i>the omnipotent, omnipresent boss changes the speed of production from his big office removed from the sufferable realities of his men in an attempt to increase production and thus profit.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Althusser’s modifications of “ideology” (p.52-54) plays throughout the movie by the Little Tramp’s many failed attempts to conform. The Little Tramp reads the newspaper about new opportunities to become a successful person and live the good life, and off he goes for the next humorous adventure. Every time Tramp fails, however, he is jailed by police, and no one questions the inhumanity of the conditions, only Tramp’s incompetence. We are interpellated. We are so bombarded with messages and images that make us feel powerful, only to be disempowered by the magic trick or the dominant-hegemonic forces (p.57). The Little Tramp was a failure for his humanity in context of the system.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sex is the wildcard. In <i>Modern Times</i>, Paulette Goddard was the object for the male “gaze”, as explored in chapter 3, which can manipulate the viewer, though she manages to contradict typical gender roles and sexual stereotypes to do so. Chaplin, in his real life was known for objectifying young women to the point of questionable legality regarding his young muses. The beautiful Goddard, Chaplin’s much younger wife and co-star, is one of many in the long tradition of beautiful screen women of desire. In the film, Goddard as the Gamine is strong, savvy and able to survive. She supports herself and her family. While the Little Tramp is imprisoned, she gets a job and a house for the two of them upon Tramp’s release (4). I would also argue the androgyny of Chaplin’s pantomime contradicts the stereotype of masculinity, which, in many ways, seems to champion gender equality. Perhaps, the comedy genre allowed such contradictions to be tolerated or overlooked . Ultimately, the beautiful Gamine is successful as a dancer hired by an overweight club owner. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In politics, the prowess and good looks of Barack Obama, was played up to get the first black man elected to the white house. Our “gaze” was a target of manipulation during the 2008 political campaign. More men would rather be Barack Obama, and more women would rather be with the democrat Barack Obama than the republican John McCain. Not to be outdone, the republicans introduced America to Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate. The lower the republicans were in the polls, the shorter Palin’s skirts became. A vice-presidential candidate actually wore leather boots and leather skirts. In addition, comparisons were made between Barack Obama and Will Smith, the top selling movie star at that time and a world savior in most of his films, to soften initial skepticism toward Obama’s race based on more than 80 years of under-representation and misrepresentation in mass media (that is putting it very mildly, too mildly). Michelle Obama even went on the Oprah show comparing Obama’s and Smith’s pertruding ears. This calculated comparison could be categorized as propaganda. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But the most extreme example of the power of persuasion in visual culture is the misuse of the famous toothbrush style mustache of Chaplin by Adolf Hitler. Clearly with this look, Hitler stole people’s trust by likening himself to an established friendly face (2). Through the distorted filter of history, the mustache is often mistakenly referred to as Hitler’s, and many wrongly question why Chaplin looked like Hitler. In addition to the historical impact the Natzi atrocities, Hitler claimed ownership of Chaplin’s look and changed the meaning of the swastika (originally a symbol for peace) simultaneously. This was tragic to Chaplin. As a result, Chaplin satirized Hitler in <i>The Great Dictator</i>, shortly after <i>Modern Times </i>to warn against blindly following leaders. Before its release, the film was marketed as a brave and important film for it’s attack of Hitler (2). Hitler’s propaganda was counter-attacked by something “propagand-ish”.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The film climaxes with the speech that is now famously referenced in commercials and appropriated in hip-hop records. The speech has even been posted to <i>youtube</i> with contemporary film images to further enhance and illustrate Chaplin’s words and meaning, in a posting called, “The Greatest Speech Ever Made”: <span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Surprisingly, In its time, Chaplin’s speech was criticized as anti-climatic and flat. My relating it to events that have happened over 60 years later, or by seeing black and white film as nostalgic, which was simply the standard for film at the time, is viewing the work out of historical context in some ways (p.109). However, Chaplin’s ability to seemingly step off the screen and address us, the Western industrialized culture does seems current. This implies Chaplin’s awareness of the lasting power of media, so he chose his words carefully. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Reading <i>Practices of Looking...</i> by Sturken and Cartwright makes me question if such passion has been simply marketed to me. This is a mass produced film for profit. Does this film have a political intent, making it propaganda, as Walter Benjamin’s essay warns (p.131)? Or are <i>Modern Times</i> and <i>The Great Dictator</i> works by an artist, using his savoir faire; his popularity, pantomime, creative control, and power of media, to fight the very machine that had made him rich, but also resulted in his likeness being used to brainwash and kill. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first five weeks of this course has brought to light for me the seriousness and complexity of visual culture. It plays out like a game for some, but it is literally life and death. The lines between our Western Industrialized culture and visual culture are intertwined as a result. We must buy something. We are consumers more than we are a democracy. This may contradict the plight of many artists. However, after all the analyzing, the artist and the audience must leave a space in their heart to enjoy...Art.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Modern Times </i>concludes with our hero the Little Tramp and the Gamine narrowly escaping the law. They leave town realizing they are still in tact, and thus, they embark on Chaplin’s trademark ending. The Little Tramp and his mate walk away from the camera toward the horizon... and that is my idea of aesthetic beauty.... Roll credits. </span><br />
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<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Frank Nugent, "Modern Times (1936). Heralding the Return, After an Undue Absence, of Charlie Chapin in ‘ModernTimes’". The New York Times: Movie Review February 6, 1936–http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9403E3DE153FEE3BBC4E53DFB466838D629EDE</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bosley Crowther Wallace, "The Great Dictator (1940). THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'The Great Dictator,' by and With Charlie Chaplin...” The New York Times: Movie Review October 16, 1940–http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE5DA103BE433A25755C1A9669D946193D6CF</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The Great Dictator</i> (1940)</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Gamin: Paulette Goddard, http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/biography/articles/221-The-Gamine-Paulette-Goddard</span></li>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-82965721447854382542012-09-20T16:16:00.004-07:002012-09-20T16:16:59.090-07:00FOUR Reaction<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 9/21/12<br />Ramon Riley</td></tr>
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I decided to reproduce my last drawing in a new context. The projection is exactly the same, but by changing the background that the image was projected onto, the pieces are very different. ART.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 9/19/12<br />Ramon Riley</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 9/21/12<br />Ramon Riley</td></tr>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-45676874955848583042012-09-19T16:06:00.001-07:002012-09-19T18:02:38.027-07:00FOUR - Reproduction and Visual Technologies <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">FOUR - Reproduction and Visual Technologies</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Untitled 9/19/12<br />
Ramon Riley</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Above is an art work of Braddock, my hometown, from a combination of 3 photographs. I used photoshop and a projector as well as collage, paint and graphite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I chose Braddock as the subject because I was fascinated by the idea Sturken and Cartwright presented in chapter four from "Practices of Looking..." that images of the past being looked at today is out of the original context. This relates to gentrification of urban neighborhoods. As Braddock begins this process whether it is welcomed or inevitable, it takes THE Braddock, which once breathed life through the first steel mill and first Carnegie Library, out of context for profit. Buy low sell high. What once produced 80 % of the world's steel (yes the world's steel) is being dissected and redistributed. What it is worth historically can never be measured monetarily, yet that will be its fate. ...like seeing a mustache on the Mona Lisa.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I liked the metaphor that historically Braddock has been a place of production, and now its meaning/purpose has changed. It's steel has built many of the worlds buildings. This project was poetic, so I had to also include a song by my favorite poet.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">"...</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">Takes a life to make a life</span><br />
<span class="line line-s hover" id="line_29" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: #e6eff8; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: 0px; color: #3a598f; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Livin' in the world of crime tonight</span><span class="line line-s hover" id="line_31" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-color: #e6eff8; background-image: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; border: 0px; color: #3a598f; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Can't find a better way to break you</span><span class="line line-s" id="line_32" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">This ain't livin', I gotta do what I gotta do"</span><span class="line line-s" id="line_32" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="line line-s" id="line_32" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">...from "This Ain't Livin'" by 2Pac</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-31774011820904380752012-09-14T08:08:00.001-07:002012-09-14T08:08:30.152-07:00Writing Three - Group C Reaction<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I found James Battistelli’s description of his work fascinating! Is there a blog with pix? The idea of science fictions impact opens a new discussion that I hope the book gets into further. I think how we are portrayed in science fiction sometimes tells us more about our culture than movies based in reality or even based on true stories. Battistelli say’s, “What I plan to do in my work this semester is incorporate body extension and performance into these new creatures I am creating,” which hooked me in based on the concept alone. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I found Michelle Coulbaugh’s take on the chapter and the impact of branding and labels compelling saying “Specifically, my paintings focus on creating new representations and relationships between the spectator and the fast food industry. I strive to break down the industry’s power over our buying choices by removing branding from their food packaging. What is left is a stark, blank slate upon which we can apply a fresh judgment on what and why we are buying.” After seeing her current pieces in Kipp Gallery, I realize my mind had added the labels to the product. My mind completed the picture. There is a difference in a McDonald’s yellow and a Wendy’s yellow. My mind immediately saw that paler Wendy’s yellow and filled in the blanks. These big companies are watching us and directing us. We are the market in market research. Repetition fosters familiarity, which is difficult to resist even if the result is unfulfilling. I am trained to go back again and again.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Crystal Miller’s point that the scale of her work is very important to addressing/engaging people was well stated. Having worked on illustration size drawings for the past five years versus putting work in a gallery environment is a daunting task because how it will ultimately be received is dependent on variable I had not been considering. The intimacy of holding a book is very different from luring viewers in to see you work. What I thought was large can be dwarfed by the context of a wall. Having been in class with the artist, I wanted to hear more about how she chooses her subjects for her photographs. I wonder what makes something worthy of this creative treatment of printing and scaling to turn it into art. I wonder is it being at the right place at the right time, or is there some part of the plan that is consistent when you are looking?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Crystal’s paper addressed the sexual undertones of the “gazing” process that I focused on in my writing, but I thought Eric Brennan’s stating “Men may like to imagine they are in control but women love knowing they DO control men’s gaze,” was addressing the elephant in the room. As he states in his blog, (we are) “</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Surrounded by people and society that are always trying to influence us,” I am finding I grow impatient with people who are unwilling to take a stance, state an opinion or aren’t willing to acknowledge their emotions and feelings. Ironically, many art students try to adhere to unreachable standards of purity. I feel this is out of fear of having to defend one’s self. Brennan’s paper also references the the repression of feelings seen as inappropriate. My question is inappropriate by who?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why do we have this standard that any and every question is worthy of answer? Group C re-evaluated their work based on Mulvey. Why? I would have to commit time to see her work as a filmmaker before I put so much stock in her criticism.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: 'Helvetica Light'; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0px;">“</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She instead stated that she intended to use Freud and Lacan's concepts as a "political weapon." She then used some of their concepts to argue that the cinematic apparatus of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinema"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">classical Hollywood cinema</span></a> inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire...</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mulvey argued that the only way to annihilate the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchal"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">patriarchal</span></a>" Hollywood system was to radically challenge and re-shape the filmic strategies of classical Hollywood with alternative feminist methods. She called for a new feminist avant-garde filmmaking that would rupture the magic and pleasure of classical Hollywood filmmaking. She wrote, "It is said that analyzing pleasure or beauty annihilates it. That is the intention of this article..."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That just sounds sterile and bitter. Are her films void of beauty and pleasure?Why would I want that for myself? Before I punish myself, I will consider and analyze the source.</span></div>
rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-62736467408376154432012-09-11T12:35:00.002-07:002012-09-11T12:35:28.748-07:00Writing THREE - My Visual Pleasure<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Writing Three - My Visual Pleasure</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Ramon Riley</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am guilty of looking... </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mulvey’s article proclaims that it intends to destroy pleasure and beauty by analyzing it. Nice try. Not even close. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This week I combine the writing of Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and Chapter Three, “Spectatorship, Power and Knowledge”, of the Sturken and Cartwright book “Practices of Looking...” to discuss my own practice and process.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In my work, I am driven by muses, or goddesses of inspiration. My earliest memory of this was seeing the replica sculpture of Nike of Samothrace at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, who, like the origin of the word “muse”, is also Greek. The female body draped with thin fabric clinging in a way that accentuated her curves, especially between her thighs, motivates me still to seek out moments of visual pleasure in life, thus blurring the line between art and life. That this sculpture in its current form is headless is reason for some to criticize me. Oh well. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjpKWvUVRbJx_TV2KqBY7btZvsdYjt3d0Quf6lGMmJp6e5BYTlqKpBMW0HRgi_A9_z_PgdKjLqRyPg6fTS2ooESDmPW3G4_gT0diXcZyMwggSrD2MYIAcqvOGeRqpVjaDldAulomkqcfh/s1600/nike_of_samothrace-greek_art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjpKWvUVRbJx_TV2KqBY7btZvsdYjt3d0Quf6lGMmJp6e5BYTlqKpBMW0HRgi_A9_z_PgdKjLqRyPg6fTS2ooESDmPW3G4_gT0diXcZyMwggSrD2MYIAcqvOGeRqpVjaDldAulomkqcfh/s1600/nike_of_samothrace-greek_art.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Nike of Samothrace,<br /> 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A sculpture, even more than a painting, because it is three-dimensional is the highest form of looking because every curve is studied and touched intimately. In my latest works, I wanted to bring my drawings close to this level of intimacy and study. I treat the graphite like a chisel to reveal the image from the paper. This involves a long hard look. My intention is to get the viewer to also take a long hard look.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_hBPfBT0mpNSX110XlJ_hiLo-D_7i9D4CH85I4-Kud750DuRly4Vx5JqQfm80jaTw6nCSKQfedMCGlYUQReVLEE3v75b43DCaxUmfngwP9iTV-WNDrRwGCXchY8BGaIxrnKeE0_pwwo8/s1600/IMG_2193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_hBPfBT0mpNSX110XlJ_hiLo-D_7i9D4CH85I4-Kud750DuRly4Vx5JqQfm80jaTw6nCSKQfedMCGlYUQReVLEE3v75b43DCaxUmfngwP9iTV-WNDrRwGCXchY8BGaIxrnKeE0_pwwo8/s640/IMG_2193.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Untitled"<br />Ramon Riley 2012</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The concept of the “gaze” in both articles was well presented and focused on the voyeur having power, at least at first. The negative connotation it puts on instinct to look as an abuse of power, however, causes me to distance myself from such a definition. To look is powerful. One does not have to make another weak to make one’s self powerful. Mulvey talks about a world of sexual imbalance between the “active/ male and passive/ female”. Reading this article conjured feelings from my youth as the sympathetic male who was missing the boat. I spent too much time listening to insecure self-haters who want others to hate themselves too. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I seek to articulate the power the muse already has, so one may be inspired as I am. The Winged Nike of Samothrace is powerful. She is the symbol of victory for goodness sake and not just in title. She is not passive. Her stance is strong and assertive. That she is actually an object immortalizes her, and makes me wonder who was the muse that inspired the sculpture. To see her image, likeness or qualities in women is cyclical because I am not sure which came first. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I do believe there is a vast difference, despite subtle distinctions, between the look, the gaze, the scope of an individual predator or the panopticon theory as discussed in the Sturken and Cartwright chapter (p. 96 -100). The distinction is in the access and motive of discovery. It should not be a violation of ownership. The half-cocked can argue that they are one in the same, but I argue in the subtle distinction... there is the art.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The metamorphosis of our capitalist culture to give cheap (not necessarily inexpensive, but cheap) easy access to everything, lowers our standards despite the illusion of “high definition” being the so-called standard. Putting cameras in everyone’s hands and convincing them they are photographers and directors sabotages the artist, model and potential audience because the work and the venue is tainted. This results in poor representation of a given medium. But it makes me more confident and determined as an artist. I like being me, though it comes at the price of constant self-examination. I constantly ask myself difficult questions. My art work stems from the remaining questions I am unable to verbalize that probably have no set answer. This process makes me the proud co-owner of my discoveries and my art. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I believe in muses, and I appreciate beauty. I will not surrender my passion to follow the uninspired nor the uninspiring . Karen Rosenberg wrote in an article for a Matisse gallery show, “<a href="http://www.eykynmaclean.com/exhibitions/matisse-and-the-model.php"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Matisse and the Model</span></a>,” about the power the model had over him quoting the artist’s words from a 1939 essay: ‘“I depend entirely on my model, whom I observe at liberty, and then I decide on the pose which best suits her nature.” He continued, “And then I become the slave of that pose.”’(1) Coincidentally, Matisse’s Large Seated Nudes were inspired by Michaelangelo’s “Night” sculpture at the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=michelangelo+night&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=503l2651l0l2751l18l9l0l4l4l0l229l1226l3.3.3l12l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1144&bih=669&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Medici Chapel in Florence</span></a>, which was not a flesh woman, but Matisse understood the power of the model was the first critical part to the art work, stating about Michaelangelo’s sculpture: “Forgive me, I’ve been completely ensnared by a woman.”</span></div>
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...ditto.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Henry </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Matisse</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Seated</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> Nude [lithograph and sculpture] </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">1925-1929<br /></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Michelangelo<br /> Night</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> on the Medici Tomb<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">(1). Karen Rosenberg, "Matisse and the Model". The New York Times: Art and Design November 17, 2011–http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/arts/design/matisse-and-the-model.html</span></td></tr>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-56457776895725178562012-09-06T07:57:00.002-07:002012-09-06T07:58:38.628-07:00Writing TWO Group C Reaction<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is the second writing by Eric Brennan where I found reading to be enjoyable because the writer’s points are clear and well stated. Not that I always agree or even disagree. There is a strong writer’s voice I hear, and that makes it enjoyable. There was one point made, however, that sounded too academic, void of personality. Brennan says that because viewers often misinterpret the producers intent, “This is why advertisers always consider viewers when producing images. Marketing firms are very successful because they acknowledge viewers as individuals.This is why advertisers always consider viewers when producing images. Marketing firms are very successful because they acknowledge viewers as individuals.” Call me a pessimist, but I think there is a process of creating consumers, so that marketing firms don’t get it wrong because they have trained us. When quality visuals are hard to find we “make do”. The word consider implied some altruistic context. I liken it more to manipulation. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Michelle Colbaugh’s statement about how propaganda posters from World War II Germany and Stalin’s Russia to “brainwash the minds of the people through school, religion, and imagery to the point where their individual sense of looking was diseased by inherited slander that skewed their perception of reading the posters,” was profound, and made me think about republican and democratic conventions currently taking place... the camera angles, panning to the black guy or the senior in the audience tactics to target demographics. It seems transparent, but apparently, someone knows that the stuff works. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">James Battistelli says, “We as individuals in a digital age have the resources to produce anything we want digitally and then comment on it and other media like it.” I agree with this, but, being a teacher, I hear the praise but I read complaints. I think when people are happy, they go about their day happy. I question if this age of rating makes us seek to knit pick instead of thinking enjoyment first. I don’t know. Also, the mentioning of youtube made me think about what ends up getting attention is childish stuff, but thank goodness for the inventions. The resources are powerful. Battistelli sums up the readings by stating that the viewer is given power as producer. I am questioning in my head if this is the same as empowering viewers. I wonder.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I also enjoyed what Brennan wrote about aesthetics and a hierarchy of taste. The power of those in charge of declaring what is valuable should always be questioned, so I was completely on board with this portion of the writing. Crystal Miller’s summaries, “When viewing a representation/symbol, we have evolved our thinking to that the object and its’ representation are now visual equals, even though functionality renders them different.” It is this statement that connects taste. I think understanding, or being, in tune with what we really are seeing refines our taste. Miller goes on to say that our individual taste has more widely acceptable standards because it belongs to the individual. That said there is still acceptance culturally based on that hierarchy Brennan was referring to in his paper. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After reading everyone’s statements, I thought about how our taste changes or evolves, and I wondered if we mature or if we simply become worn down by the culture. I also thought about the chosen one’s whose job it is to be in the front of us, our tastes, visually. Where do they get their taste, or how are their sensibilities formed? My inner pessimism says it is all to change the direction of the sheep...</span></div>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-59426385850554357952012-09-05T14:11:00.002-07:002012-09-05T14:57:37.934-07:00Writing TWO: Visual Culture and Historical Research <br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I saw an exhibit at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh entitled “Impressionism In A New Light: From Monet to Stieglitz”. The show was a look at how Impressionism had impacted photography. As an art student, I was taught photography changed the need to render realistically, and Impressionism and Expressionism grew from the camera relieving the artist from the role of documenter. This show made the case that Impressionism created “Pictorialism”, where photographers were using techniques in both the taking photos and the development of photographs to show photography as art and more than “point-and-shoot” (1). </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there were two photographs that made me return to the museum a day later. The subject of this paper is a photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz and the art of O'Keeffe. I will intertwine my findings with my understanding of the assigned readings: Chapter 2 of the Sturken and Cartwright book “Practices of Looking...” and the article “Welcome to the Cultural Revolution” by Krauss.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the photograph of O’Keeffe, Stieglitz knew how to capture the beauty of the woman he loved. This portrait shows a side profile with the artist’s (O’Keeffe’s) nude shoulder seducing the viewer and her uplifted hands playing the air like an instrument. Stieglitz displayed O’Keeffe’s elongated and elegant fingers and portrayed her skin as fair against the stark contrast of a black background.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSxxp8-71jMO8Gka0IaJ_WrV3ipnyPc6j6KJcTyPBLrsdqppTt5n39EyoeRtsfqQMnmp79RmgSJnM4aGpxUeNx7cCP2Z4LlXynUn3_LBcVOpmiVw_5rJP-zxMKFyJyCxSp62AJkth2uy9/s1600/alfred-stieglitz-georgia-okeeffe-1920-1341287720_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSxxp8-71jMO8Gka0IaJ_WrV3ipnyPc6j6KJcTyPBLrsdqppTt5n39EyoeRtsfqQMnmp79RmgSJnM4aGpxUeNx7cCP2Z4LlXynUn3_LBcVOpmiVw_5rJP-zxMKFyJyCxSp62AJkth2uy9/s640/alfred-stieglitz-georgia-okeeffe-1920-1341287720_b.jpg" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Stieglitz <i>"Georgia O'Keeffe" 1920</i></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As I sat for hours cherishing the opportunity to see O’Keeffe as Stieglitz might have seen her. I thought about O’Keeffe’s art work which added greatly to the power of the image. I was looking at an American Master photographed tenderly by the man who loved her before the stardom and before her legacy had been overanalyzed, bastardized and regurgitated.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thinking about the Sturken and Cartwright reading and the concept of the dominant-hegemonic reading theory (p.53-57), I recalled a professor during my days as an undergrad “informing” me that O’Keeffe’s paintings were seen as subconscious images of tribute to the vagina. And the more I looked at her work, I saw it too. I accepted this as truth, and I carried that deduction with me... until I saw the photograph of in the show at the Carnegie. It’s accepted that the artist doesn’t always “know” the symbolism in their own work, and this is where critics and historians can help to uncover the subconscious of the artist. So I accepted my professor's statement despite O'Keeffe's public denial. There is nothing wrong with seeing the flower paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe in the way the love of a woman can soothe the angst man. Plus it contrasted the chaotic work of the time (2). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1BxoHdwPQlPSCCUL5sbSH6gO8i_-Ik4x2hLtkZ6tRj6N_MGQGoaivpAduOIgqi8km9XpRCJ7sXJaW2ZAeJrnqYhlhphuFt2srxCzITdUetmoqwTd5JKp_FOa1jXLKgHUrd_JOys1YE2t/s1600/theother3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1BxoHdwPQlPSCCUL5sbSH6gO8i_-Ik4x2hLtkZ6tRj6N_MGQGoaivpAduOIgqi8km9XpRCJ7sXJaW2ZAeJrnqYhlhphuFt2srxCzITdUetmoqwTd5JKp_FOa1jXLKgHUrd_JOys1YE2t/s640/theother3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Iris Series 1926</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It was not until I witnessed the oversimplification and immature giggles toward her work that I felt perplexed. I heard other undergrads, “...she just paints vaginas.” There was that damned word “just” to reduce the significance of something, and the loaded word “vagina” which carries much more baggage (both selfish and commercial). This is the opposite of rappers trying to validate the “n-word” by saying they are re-purposing its meaning (Sturken and Cartwright p. 63). This is our culture claiming ownership of something intangible and trying to sell it, thus, cheapening it (Either option is misguided), and these idiots were allowed to speak that way, let alone think that way. The context of OUR culture was contaminating this fresh experience of looking at O’Keeffe’s art (Sturken and Cartwright p. 57) for me.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Maybe Georgia O’Keeffe did paint vaginas subconsciously. Then the definition or connotaion of “vagina” must be refined to align with the impression made upon me by the art and image of the woman in Stieglitz’s portrait. Looking at the photo of O’Keeffe by Stieglitz, one could see in her image the contrast of strength and vulnerability, seduction and unawareness, sophistication and informality... I saw it in Stieglitz’s photograph. So, if the artist IS the work, and the work IS the artist, to say Georgia O’Keeffe paints vaginas can still be accepted (if YOU need to label things), but one best get their understanding of the vagina as symbol correct first and remove the marketing baggage, bastardization, prostitution and pimping of “pussy” out of the equation. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is not some up-skirt shot of Brittany Spears on TMZ, but unfortunately, many “intelligent” people among us use knowledge to sell garbage to the majority of us to make themselves rich. When it comes to visual culture, or culture period, there should be required courses in visual art, symbolism, and ethics. This is where the Krauss reading comes in. It seeks to critique and expose “unexamined assumptions about representation” (p.83). There are too many “smart” people saying stupid “shit”. Sturken and Cartwright might say people “make do” because our introduction to most things come from a passive state of boredom (p.59), which would fit in with Krauss stating that our capitalist culture prepares us in order to sell TO us (p.84). We kinda, sorta channel surf through life, and in that sense, I hate when people disrespect or don’t get the things I find inspirational. I guess, by living to be inspired, I am a bad consumer.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So, as I draw my own comparisons, through conversations with other inspired people, I compare O’Keeffe’s hands in the Stieglitz photograph to the artist Rodin’s sculpture “The Hand of God” using the symbol of the hands as the original Creator. Rodin, also saw hands as being able to express the emotions of the entire body (3). The similarity of Rodin’s sculpted fingers and O’Keeffe’s fingers is uncanny... or is it? The more I am around creative people, and the more photographs of O’Keeffe by Stieglitz I seek out, the more I see there are common trait’s that artists have, and O’Keeffe’s likeness exuded many if not all of the best of these traits. I am not proclaiming her to be perfect. I am, however, applauding the value of O’Keeffe as creator and as muse. I do not want to reduce her or her creations. It took seeing O’Keeffe in photograph form and revisiting her work as an adult to see the energy and power in her and her ART. I would rather falter on the side of treating O’Keeffe as God-like than mistakingly reduce her. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Auguste Rodin<br />
<i>"The Hand of God"</i> 1907</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Stieglitz <br />
<i>"Hands and Thimble - Georgia O'Keeffe"</i> 1920</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Our visual culture often uses the lowest common denominator to unite us or relate to us, but it only treats us like children devaluing what is important under the guise of simplifying information. Simultaneously, our culture inflates the status of molesters who can sell and make capital. Krauss’s article proclaims art both representational and non-objective to be language that needs to be analyzed to understand providing the tools to fight the hard sell and avoid being misled. Conscious art education begins there. When deconstructing visual language/culture, we must be careful not </span>to <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">lose the subtlety of the art in exchange for a fast explanation, or an explanation at all. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Thankfully, through education, I am learning that there is so much more to learn. Like Stieglitz and the photographers in that show, I can stand up for ART despite my fear that we will always be a “point-and-shoot” culture. We tolerate the quick conclusion because it is catchy, and it sells. I have to maintain my filter which will not allow my appreciation to be contaminated and penetrated by someone else’s disease. Not without a fight.</span><br />
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<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Christina Rouvalis, “First Impressions,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">CARNEGIE</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Summer, 2012): 13-17.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Author Unknown. “Georgia O’Keefe: About the Painter,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">American Masters</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, 2006 <<a href="http://www.natlandmk.com/hist"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/georgia-okeeffe/about-the-painter/55/</span></a>> (28 April 2006).</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">"Auguste Rodin: The Hand of God (08.210)". In <i>Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History</i>. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/08.210"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/08.210</span></a> (October 2006)</span></li>
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rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-80210214095056167952012-08-31T06:01:00.002-07:002012-08-31T06:01:49.473-07:00Writing ONE Group C Reaction<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudwNSp8-C4mOJYxfRKtaeymBLLqB0OdpORU6bCTR_XJXMoXGl6nyI6zQGb9KhgG620QoTE1lg5PavT9_HGYs9_Cl90vpExs0NFHS79lUtjftM3dgeUwA_lbHTdqci5Qv44_R27KJ56S65/s1600/Kipp+Gallery+Sept+07,+2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudwNSp8-C4mOJYxfRKtaeymBLLqB0OdpORU6bCTR_XJXMoXGl6nyI6zQGb9KhgG620QoTE1lg5PavT9_HGYs9_Cl90vpExs0NFHS79lUtjftM3dgeUwA_lbHTdqci5Qv44_R27KJ56S65/s320/Kipp+Gallery+Sept+07,+2012.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kipp Gallery, September 07, 2012<br /><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After reading the entries from my group, I was left with the impression that we are, for the most part agreeable with the reading, and we all acknowledge the impact of Visual Culture on our work. However, I found myself asking “Should we care”? “How much should we care”? “What should we care about”?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Michelle Colbaugh’s paper, she talked about “creating illusions through photo representation and abstraction in paint”. James Batistelli echoed the usefulness and accessibility of being able to manipulate photography. Coincidentally, I had not incorporated photography in my work for over 10 years, until recently. While I have set rules for myself (which may be silly and a waste of time), where I only use MY photographs, I know my “rules” are a direct reaction to the ease of use and blurring of appropriation versus stealing. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Crystal Miller’s paper did a wonderful job of laying this out, and her blog page was sharp and convincing on just how easy it is to get US to look. There are color theory classes. There is market research...etc. In the twenty-first century we have more tools at our disposal to manipulate the viewer to look. I found myself thinking about seeing work and asking myself, if I would consciously be trying to break down the “illusion” because I too am an artist and am obligated to serve as a visual docent, artistic awareness gatekeeper, or if I would simply allow myself to be the kid in the candy store...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;">I loved this statement in Eric Brennan’s paper: “</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I believe all visual art is part of visual culture but visual culture is not always a part of the visual arts.” I thought Eric’s writing about the inevitability of the impact of visual culture on us spoke to my feelings and opinions. Yet, by stating that there is a connectedness and separation between visual art and visual culture gives one hope that what an artist does can expand and shape the culture in whatever way, big or small, instead of inevitably succumbing to the culture. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am unfulfilled when I catch myself tearing things down unless I find something to lift up. The connectedness of culture, media and visual art is complex, but I struggle with walking the line of being a critical artist without being a critic who doesn’t make art, because it is easiest to overanalyze and criticize one’s self. When I set up rigid rules, I am bound to break them and feel like a hypocrite. That sucks.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I am engaged, I am not thinking about culture or trends or marketability or illusion or validity or impact. I am in love. I am all of that and none of that. I care about what I care about until I care about something else, so if my love is strong enough, then it will be worthy of attention. I can be a magnet instead of spending my life trying to become a magnet. I can be the result of the best of what I have experienced and taken in, instead of constantly scrutinizing what I am taking in with a false sense of security that such a process will make me better. Perhaps. </span></div>
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<br />rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200596203879087963.post-57651866354625491792012-08-29T21:01:00.004-07:002012-08-29T21:01:47.703-07:00Writing ONE<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For some reason the words visual culture puts a bad taste in my mouth. It is labeling the unnecessary. Perhaps that is my artist angst that simply hates labels. Or perhaps it is an ignorance that will evolve through understanding. As an American, I think we struggle with the word culture. We are a mix of many cultures. We are bombarded with imagery. Sometimes it is too much to take, and even more to think about.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">...but in my world, I can filter out what I do not want. I have the freedom to choose what I want to spend time seeing. I can go to the museum and choose one artist, or one painting, and I can sit for hours. This is the other part of being American. We have much to choose from and much to arouse us.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think visual art can be defined as our filter. If we do not see it, then we do not see it. If I visit the museum in my teens, but I do not get Matisse until I’m in my thirties, then it is only then, in my thirties that Matisse is an artist. As a teacher, I see that all the time. I can only introduce and hope that my students are prepared for when they are ready to receive a particular artist. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am learning that my art history has been shaped by memories, and I am just now able to uncover them and explore them. For example, I have been surrounded by gothic architecture and “greek-like” sculpture my entire life, yet I owned it before I knew it. So my palette has been shaped by this, and I seek these things out with more conviction now. Thus, I consider my own experience with art and art culture to be an excavation. I am hoping someday to catch up. Then maybe I can stand assured in the present.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Until we are confident, we imitate in words and actions. I like it because you like it. I like it because I think I should. It’s art because it is famous. I have looked back on my own work and thought, “I was on to something,” but only in hindsight. It was not until this summer that I started feeling like an artist in the moment. I felt a rush through my body that engaged all of my senses and told me that what I was doing mattered even if only to myself. I wasn’t working for a grade, a show, a critique, compensation... I felt the power of things learned and forgotten culminate through me. I was the vessel. Is that culture? I mean in a larger sense???</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Do we need artists to be the bookmarks of our lives? Do we need artists to say IT? Do we need artists to be our collective voice? Because an artist can do that. An artist strike universal cord or a nerve that we did not know was there to be played or explored. That is why art changes and evolves, I think. Because our world changes and evolves, even if we never do or did not want to.</span></div>
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<br />rzlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13762770816972236619noreply@blogger.com0